For the first time since 2009, Samuel Sanchez will not lead the Euskaltel at the Tour de France as the Spaniard had built the first part of his season around the Giro d'Italia. Instead, it will be up to climbers Igor Anton and Mikel Nieve to reach the team's stage win objective.

For the past three years, Samuel Sanchez has captained Euskaltel at the Tour de France, taking third overall in 2010 and a stage win and the mountains jersey one year later before crashing out early in the race last year. In 2013 the team leader has, however, rearranged his race schedule, concentrating all his attention on the Giro and the world championships.

That leaves it to the team's two other climbers to lead the squad at the world's biggest bike race and Igor Anton and Mikel Nieve will both target a stage win. Both are proven grand tour riders, having won stages in both the Giro and the Vuelta.

Anton burst onto the scene with a stage win in the 2006 Vuelta and went on to make an anonymous debut appearance at the Tour one year later. He most recently raced at the Tour in 2009 in the absence of Sanchez but as it was the case two years earlier, he was unable to make an impression.

Those modest performances are in complete contrast to his splendid Vuelta results. In both 2008 and 2010, he was appeared to be one of the strongest riders in the race and had a solid chance of stepping onto the final podium - in the latter year he was even a winner candidate. Bad luck struck and on both occasions he left the race after crashes.

Since then he has been unable to reproduce those performances but he still managed to win an emotional win when the Vuelta returned to the Basque Country for the first time since the 70s and he finished in the top 10 at the race last year. Furthermore, he won the feared stage to the top of the Monte Zoncolan at the 2010 Giro, beating an otherwise superior Contador in the process. He has had a rather anonymous season so far and recently finished a modest 12th at the Tour de Suisse.

Mikel Nieve is the man of the queen stages in the grand tours. In 2010 he brought his team back on track after Anton's crash in his debut Vuelta, winning the queen stage and finishing 12th overall. One year later he repeated the queen stage win at the Giro before going on to finish 10th overall, and he achieved the same GC result at that year's Vuelta.

Last year he enjoyed his first grand tour captaincy role at the Giro and finished 10th after an aggressive performance that had seen him chase another stage win. This year he has been far from his best and recently finished far back in 17th at the Dauphiné.

Manager Igor Gonzalez De Galdeano hopes that his star duo will be able to reproduce their earlier results in France during the coming three weeks.

"(Our objective is, ed.) a stage win," he said. "Anton and Nieve are two climbers with wins in the Vuelta and the Giro. The Tour is unlike any other race and will be very complicated, but I hope they have a chance to shine."

The team will also include the talented Izagirre brothers, Ion and Gorka, who are both talented climbers and Ion even also a decent time triallist. Veteran Mikel Astarloza - a former top 10 finisher at the Tour - will be back again this year but the Basque has been unable to find back to his best following his doping suspension.

For the first time in many years, the team also brings a dedicated sprinter to the event as new signing Juan Jose Lobato will debut at the race. He has performed splendidly in the early part of the season, winning a stage in the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon and getting close in both the Bayern Rundfahrt and the recent Tour of Luxembourg.

There is also a spot for former Tour de l'Avenir winner and U23 world champion Romain Sicard who will finally make his Tour de France debut while the squad is completed by Tour veterans Ruben Perez and Juan Jose Oroz.

"The rest of the group is also very motivated," Galdeano said. "They know they will have their opportunity and are looking forward to seizing them."

The Tour de France starts on Saturday with a road stage in Corsica.

Euskaltel for the Tour de France:

Igor Anton, Mikel Nieve, Mikel Astarloza, Ion Izagirre, Gorka Izagirre, Romain Sicard, Ruben Perez, Juan Jose Lobato and Juan Jose Oroz